The Hudson Valley began digging out from Nemo on Saturday. The storm dumped as much as 18 inches of snow on some areas.

Hudson Valley begins 'Nemo' cleanup

By Leonard Sparks

Times Herald-Record

February 09, 2013 - 10:01 AM

MIDDLETOWN – As the sun rose on Saturday morning the Hudson Valley began digging out from Nemo, which dumped more than a foot of now on many parts of the region.

About 18 inches was reported in Washingtonville, 14 inches in Warwick and 12 in High Falls, Middletown and the hamlet of Walkill. In Sullivan County about 9 inches fell in Wurtsboro and 4 in Neversink.

“It was a whopper,” Middletown resident Robert Saul said as he ran a snow blower along the sidewalk in front of his house while his wife, Mary Saul, shoveled their porch and steps.

“I thought we were going to get through the winter relatively mild,” he said. “But I guess after a super-mild winter like the last one, you got to pay your dues at some point.”

Despite the significant snowfall, fears of widespread accidents and power outages were not born out. About 483 Orange & Rockland customers were without power as of 10 a.m. and Central Hudson reported 13 outages in Ulster.

At 1 p.m. Gov. Andrew Cuomo led a storm briefing from hard-hit Suffolk County, where about 10,000 people were without power in the immediate wake of the storm.

Hundreds of state Department of Transportation plows are deployed on Long Island, working side-by-side with plows and front loaders operated by emergency contractors.

Cuomo also announced that Metro-North had resumed service on its Harlem and Hudson lines and that Kenneday and LaGuardia airports resumed flights beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Sullivan escaped without any outage problems and all roads were open and being cleared, County Manager David Fanslau said on Saturday morning. The county also had no fires or storm-related accidents, he said.

“I would urge travelers to continue to use caution while traveling, as wind gusts could blow snow onto cleared roads, Fanslau said.